Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was discharged Wednesday from a German hospital where he underwent surgery for a blocked artery in the neck, his aide said.Gorbachev, 75, was released from Munich's Grosshadern Hospital in the morning, Vladimir Polyakov said. He plans to remain in Germany for several days and return to Russia after a follow-up visit to the clinic, he said. "Everything is fine," Polyakov said. Doctors operated Nov. 21 on Gorbachev's carotid artery at the Munich clinic, where he had been hospitalized two days earlier. Before that, he had gone to a Moscow hospital complaining of feeling tired and unwell.Gorbachev radically changed the Soviet Union with his liberal glasnost and perestroika reforms in the late 1980s, helping to unleash forces that pulled the country apart and led to his resignation in December 1991 as president of a nation that essentially had ceased to exist.... http://www.usatoday.com

NATO leaders finished a two-day summit Wednesday without agreement on some members' refusal to send troops into combat in Afghanistan's most dangerous regions, where casualties are mounting in the fight against Taliban insurgents. Officials said France, Germany, Italy and Spain had agreed to remove restrictions on aiding other countries' militaries in an emergency in Afghanistan. But the four nations will not be sending troops to regularly fight alongside the British, Canadian, Dutch and American forces on the front lines of battles with the resurgent Taliban in the south and east. "The summit did not have the character of a major breakthrough," Polish President Lech Kaczynski said. "Not all countries showed the same level of determination." British Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to cast the summit in a more positive light. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/29/terror/main2213890.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2213890

Turkey's 40-year dream of anchoring its future in the EU suffered a devastating blow today as Brussels called for eight out of its 35 negotiating "chapters" to be suspended.The announcement was made by Olli Rehn, the EU enlargement commissioner, prompting swift criticism from Turkey's prime minister and a mixed response from European leaders, who are divided on the issue. Ahead of the announcement, it is understood that Mr Rehn faced sharp comments from both sides of the argument - those who felt he had gone too far with this move, and those who believed he had not gone far enough. Turkey and its friends in the EU had hoped for a less severe form of punishment after Ankara refused to open its ports and airports to Greek-Cypriot shipping. Britain had hoped that only three chapters directly linked to Cyprus would be suspended....http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,1959768,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

Fierce fighting Wednesday between coalition forces and insurgents shut down the city of Baquba, which has been roiled by violence in recent days, killing scores of militants and civilians.Suspected insurgents attacked the police headquarters in downtown Baquba, sparking a clash with police that left five of the attackers dead, police said on condition of anonymity, as they regularly do to protect themselves.Coalition forces backed by U.S. aircraft also killed eight al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents during a raid near the city that also left two Iraqi women dead, the U.S. military said.The early morning attack was aimed at detaining Iraqis who were running a known cell of insurgents, the U.S. command said. The soldiers called in air support after coming under heavy fire from rifles and machine guns, the command said....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/29/iraq.ap/index.html?eref=rss_world

Colombia's political establishment is being shaken to its core by almost daily revelations of how allies of President Alvaro Uribe apparently worked hand-in-hand with feared rightwing militias who used terror for more than a decade to impose their will on the population. The country's supreme court this week ordered six high profile, pro-Uribe politicians - including the foreign minister's brother - to submit to questioning about their alleged links with the paramilitary groups, which are blamed for the massacre, murder and torture of thousands of Colombians. Two senators, an acting representative and a former congresswoman from the northern province of Sucre have already been arrested on similar charges, and a former governor is at large. Senator Alvaro García, the lynchpin of Sucre politics, even faces murder charges for allegedly planning the 2000 massacre of 14 people in a small village and for ordering the murder of an election official...http://www.guardian.co.uk/colombia/story/0,,1959864,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday that about 38,000 of its hourly production workers have accepted buyouts or early retirement offers. The figure includes approximately 30,000 buyouts during the open enrollment period that concluded late Monday, plus about 8,000 who took deals offered at limited plants earlier this year. Faced with lower demand for its products, Ford had hoped that 25,000 to 30,000 workers would take one of eight packages so it could reduce manufacturing capacity to better match demand. A 38,000-worker reduction would amount to nearly 46 percent of the 83,000 unionized employees that Ford had at the start of the year. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/29/business/main2213978.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2213978